In early April 1996 I was doing a very small-market, shortwave radio program with a co-host friend of mine, Kathleen Keating – a very enigmatic woman who, I quickly learned, had a knack for revealing the truth.

On that day, Kathleen – a brilliant woman, by the way – managed to dig up a guest who, at first glance, seemed to be more of a carnival sideshow rather than a serious “expert.” He claimed to have had, at one time, intimate contact with some of our nation’s most secretive spooks. Who hasn’t, right?

I wish I could remember his name, but in retrospect, I’m not even sure the name he used on our show was real. Besides, it’s not really important. What was more important is what he said on the air.

After spending most of our hour discussing covert intelligence issues, operations and allegations of the type that most people would readily dismiss as conspiratorial rantings, our guest told us something that actually chilled me.

Our discussion by then had turned to domestic terrorism. We had briefly touched on the OKC bombing, which had occurred exactly a year before – in which “official” renditions of the “truth” per various Clinton administration mouthpieces was already as confusing and conflicting as the plot in any fiction novel thriller.

On the issue of future terrorism, our guest uttered these words: “I can tell you with certainty that, within the next 90 days, an American airliner is coming down. …”

That was it. We were out of time, so I could not query our “guest” any further about this surreal “prediction.”

Once off the air, I immediately called Kathleen and asked her, “Is this guy for real, or did we just kill off our show because our listeners now think we’re a couple of loons?”

At this juncture I should note that we didn’t have many listeners to lose in the first place, so that wasn’t an issue. Our shortwave signal was being picked up very well in lots of non-English speaking countries, but required effort and a very good external antenna to be heard in most parts of the U.S.

“Yes, he’s for real,” Kathleen told me in no uncertain terms. “Believe this guy. He knows what he’s talking about.”

“Sure,” I thought to myself. “Sure he does.” I wanted to ask her if he knew who really shot President Kennedy, but thought better of it.

By July 17, 1996, I had all but forgotten our “mystery” guest and his prediction. Our show had long since gone off the air (in those days I was paying for air time and simply ran out of money). But the second I heard the news about the downing of TWA’s flight 800 from New York City to Paris, I remembered what Kathleen and I had been told. And I was chilled again.

I don’t know who this guest really was or what his “former associations” were, if any, but I do know what he said, and I do know that his “prediction” came true.

That’s why I believe there is a cover-up going on over Flight 800. And that’s why Jack Cashill’s flight 800 series published by WND last week really hit home with me.

My “mystery” guest’s prediction is perhaps the most compelling reason why I don’t believe the theory that the missile actually came from an errant U.S. Navy warship in the area. Besides, I don’t think that many sailors could keep this kind of secret for so long.

Also, the fact that a “fleeing ship” was seen immediately leaving the area by witnesses and by radar operators at high speed after a second missile launch seems to destroy the Navy theory.

And, finally, I personally believe it was “payback” by some nation or group that, for any number of reasons, didn’t care for us very much.

But whatever the cause, as Cashill suggests, the real issue here is why – as is becoming more usual – our own government seems to be going out of its way to lie, obfuscate and otherwise conceal the truth about this horrific tragedy.

The “official” version of what happened – that a cryptic “mechanical problem” caused the jet to arbitrarily blow up – is just flat wrong. The Boeing 747 series is one of the safest, most enduring and historically trouble-free commercial aircraft in the world.

Two hundred-thirty people – most of them Americans – were, in my mind, blown out of the sky July 17, 1996. Attacked. Wasted. Sacrificed.

If some second-tier spook and a pair of obscure radio hosts knew what was going to happen, it is a stretch of the highest magnitude to suggest that the most powerful and pervasive intelligence apparatus in the world – the U.S. government – was clueless about it.

Perhaps someday, when the barbarians storm the gates of the National Archives, we’ll all learn that our own government knew about this and other tragedies that have occurred in our recent past, but for selfish political reasons allowed hundreds of our citizens to be relinquished by failing to act.

I don’t think we can ignore the fact that our country has become the kind of nation we have historically reviled and opposed. Our leaders behave like they are privileged and beyond reproach; our judicial and justice apparatuses operate like reincarnations of the Soviet KGB or the East German Stasi.

Flight 800 is yet another glaring example of this kind of routine official misconduct. I believe my “experience” with this incident proves it – at least to me.